Not so long ago, I was fortunate enough to be invited, by THQ, to have a go on the multiplayer part of their upcoming FPS War Sim – Homefront. Sat amongst various other Journalist types, we were treated to a presentation from a few of the memebrs of the KAOS development team.
Not so long ago, I was fortunate enough to be invited, by THQ, to have a go on the multiplayer part of their upcoming FPS War Sim – Homefront. Sat amongst various other Journalist types, we were treated to a presentation from a few of the memebrs of the KAOS development team.
The game is set in the near future. South Korea, North Korea and Japan have now created a Pan Asian army and are set to take over the world (Mwahahahaaaa), starting with the invasion of America (of course).
The scene set, we were given a brief lowdown of how the multiplayer game works. At its most basic, it is a team based shooter affair – initially with a Battlefield style feel. Fight on foot, in land vehicles or in the air.
But actually, it is not as similar as it first seems. The big change here is what they call Battlepoints. As you achieve various goals, such as kills or team helping, you are awarded Battlepoints. These can be spent as you play to help your game. At first, when you only have few hundred, you are able to buy extra ammo and a secondary weapon like a rocket launcher. Be patient and wait a bit longer and you can get better toys. Initially this comes in teh form of drones or airstrikes.
Drones come in several flavours. There are a couple of radio controlled helicopters, one with missiles (which is great!!) and one with surveillance gear. The latter allows you to alert your team mates to threats by highlighting them on the radar. There is also a radio controlled tank, for surprising people in buildings! As I quickly discovered, finding a hiding spot before deploying one of these is essential, as you are totally venerable whilst they are active (you actually control them).
As you get more money, your toys get bigger. Hummers, tanks and helicopters are all there for patient players. This ability to buy vehicles on the fly creates a great evolving battlefield. None of this crap of waiting for a helicopter to spawn, then race against 10 other campers to get it. Now just wait, save up and buy it. What starts as a battle dominated by grunts and snipers, quickly becomes an all out vehicle skirmish. Another great feature of this system is that you can actually choose to buy a vehicle as you spawn, so you will actually spawn inside it. Again, a great way of getting around the ‘wait for vehicle, race for vehicle, repeat’ style of some games.
The levels we played were well designed and enjoyable, with buildings and open space to experiment with. The game play was a bit like a traditional campaign, where you have to hold control points. However the control points move during the game. This means that there is no chance to just camp for a whole game. You have to move as the control points move.
This is a great departure from the traditional multiplayer shooter experience. Battle Points provide a unique twist to the game play, rewarding both hardcore pros and the more mediocre player such as myself! You also feel a lot more protective of a vehicle it has taken that last ten minutes to earn.
This is a definite game to put on your watch list. The code we played was a pre alpha and even then felt good. Vehicles were easy to use, soldier classes were pretty well balanced and the levels felt good.